Fuel-feeding device.



No. 717,935. PATENTED JAN. 6, 1903.

x N. E. SHONTZ.

FUEL FEEDING DEVICE.

APPLIUATION FILED SEPT. 11, 1901. N0 MODEL.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

THE "cams PETERS co, Puwoumo wasnmcrom 0 c4 No. 717,935. PATENTED JAN. 6, 1903.

N. E. SHONTZ.

FUEL FEEDING DEVICE.

APPLIGATIONPILED SEIQT. 11, 1901.

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NITED STATES PATENT Grains.

NERI E. SI-IONTZ, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

FUEL-FEEDING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 717,935, dated January 6, 1903.

Application filed $epten ber 11, 1901; Serial No. 75,112. (No model.)

To LLZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, NERI E. SI-IONTZ, acitizen of the United States,and a resident of Ohicago, in the county of Cool; and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fuel Feeding Devices, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

The purpose of this invention is to provide an improved means for feeding coal, charcoal, or other fuel of similar character into the fire-box or onto the grate of a furnace in which it is to be consumed, being specially adapted for operating with fuel not pulverized or reduced to such fineness that it may be burned in shower or while under the propulsion of the feeding device, but rather adapted for fuel which is to be deposited on the grate and burned by draft through the grate, forming a bed of coals, as in 'the case of a fire fed by the shovel in the ordinary ried.thereby to the point of discharge above;

the fire.

It consists, further, in details ofconstruction set out in the claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is an elevation of a furnace-front having my fnel'feeding apparatus connected thereto. Fig. 2is a section at the line 2 ,2 on Fig. 1.' Fig. 3 is a section at the line 3 3 011 Fig. 2, section extending through the fire-box and showing the firebed on the grate and the fuel-delivery above the same in plan view. Fig. 4 is a detail section at the line 4 4 on Fig.2 Fig. 5 is a detail section at the line 5 5011 Fig. 2.

A is the front of an ordinary furnace of a steam-generatingplant. In thefurnace-front above the ordinary fuel-door there is made an aperture a,throngh which the final dischargechute of my appliance is inserted and at the margin of which it is attached to the f urnacefront.

B is a shell or casing in which is mounted a feed-wheel C, having a shaft 0 extending out through the side of the casing.

D is a hopper mounted on the upper side of the shell 13 and discharging downwardly thereinto above the feed-wheel 0, preferably back of the vertical plane of the axis of the shaft 0.

The casing B is extended at the forward and lower side in a horizontal chute B, which widens from the rear toits forward ordischarge end. At the rear end this chute is ofiset below the rear portion of the shell, as seen at the shoulder Z), and in cross-section immediately forward of that pointit is triangular, with the angle downward or V-shaped, as seen in section in Fig. 4:, and at the rear ofiset shoulder 19 a steam-pipe E is connected,discharging forwardly within the lower angle of said chute.

From this point the channel in the chute.

widens and gradually develops into a form in cross-section oblong and approximately rectangular, butpreferably wider at the lower side, and such is its form at the forward discharge "end, as seen in section in Fig. 5.

The shell B from the forward side of the hopper D at a distance above the feed-wheel 0 about equal to the radius of said wheel extends forward with downward curvature slightly eccentric to the wheel, so as to define a slightly-widening passage over the wheel and down forward of the same, opening into the channel of the chute B at the upper side of the latter. A flange B projecting from the shell transversely of the chute at the forward side of the curved portion of the shell where it merges in the chute, afiords means of bolting the entire shell in place on the boiler-front, with the chute projecting through the aperture a thereof, said aperture being located at a position such that the chute when the shell is thus attached overhangs the grate at a sufficient distance above the same to allow the fuel discharged from the end of the chute, as hereinafter described, to be Well distributed over the grate in falling thereto.

Any suitable means may be employed to rotate the shaft 0, and thereby the feed-wheel G, in the direction of the arrow shown in Fig. 2 at a regulated speed, which in any event should be quite slow, the action of the wheel being to carry fuel, with which the hopper A is supplied from time to time, at a rate and in quantity determined by the speed and the depth of the corrugations or size of the teeth 0' c c of the feed-wheel O, the throat or opening above the feed-wheel at the forward side of the hopper being sufficiently restricted, in view of the size of the fuel supplied, to prevent the fuel from being delivered by gravity over the wheel to any material extent.

This device is preferably adapted to operate with coal of what is commonly known as No. 1 nut size, but it is not necessary that it should be of uniform grade in this respect, and in some respects the operation of the device is more satisfactory when the fuel is of varying sizefrom fine coal, known as peacoal, up to the size of a walnut or even larger. I have shown as a means of regulating the speed of rotation of the feed-wheel two conepulleys F F, with a belt G running between them and pendent over the lower one, provided with a shipping-slide H, by which it may be adjusted longitudinally with respect to the pulleys, so as to transmit the motion from any point on the pulley F to the opposed point on the pulley F, varying the speed of the latter according to the position of the belt, power being supplied from any convenient source to the shaft of the pulley F and transmitted by any convenient means to the shaft 7 of the pulley F to the shaft 0. Steam is admitted to the pipe Ea three-inch pipe being well adapted for the purpose-the discharge terminal or nozzle 6 having an aperture of one-eighth of an inch. The coal dropped in front of this discharge-nozzle into the triangular throat which constitutes the rear end portion of the chute B is caught by the steam-jet and spread as it is driven forward in the widening-channel and finally discharged in a broad shower from the discharge end and delivered over the fire-bed with substantially even distribution, the evenness of the distribution beingimproved rather than impaired by using coal of mixed sizes from small pea to medium nut. In order to further control the distribution and correct any inequality which may arise, especially in its distribution fore and aft over the grate, I provide the deflector-gate K, pivoted at the upper margin of the discharge-mouth of the chute B and extending thence forward,adapted to be adj usted at any angle from horizontal to a position at which it willclose said mouth. A preferred form for this deflected mouth is that shown in the drawingsto wit, that curved downward or inward toward the mouth. This gate has a heel or operatinglug K extending up from its pivot at the rear end, and an operating-link K is connected to the lug and extends out through an aperture in the flange B and is notched on the lower edge, so that it may be engaged with a suitable lip 19 provided for that purpose on the lower edge of the slot, so that the operator may seat the gate at any angle desired for the purpose of causing it to control the direction or limit the throw of the fuel-shower delivered from the mouth of the chute.

My invention should be distinguished from devices for feeding either liquid or pulverized fuel or fuel in any form which can be mechanically sprayed or showered into the combustion-chamber by a blast of air of such volume and velocity as not to afford an excess of air-supply for the purpose of combustion. The distinction of importance between such devices and my invention is that I design my device to feed fuel too large to be burned while in transit or suspension, and, on the contrary, so large as to require its deposit on a grate or equivalent support, where it shall have time for ignition and combustion and shall constitute in the process a bed of coals. If fuel of such size were delivered into the fire-box by an air-blast, the volume and velocity of the air adequate to accomplish this would be so greatly in excess of that necessary for combustion that the fines of the boiler would be cooled by the passage of the excess of air through the same with the products of combustion, and it would be impossible to generate steam economically. By using a steam-jet as the means for mechanically impelling the coal into the fire-box I can employ with steam at eighty pounds pressure a jet not larger than one-eighth of an inch in diameter at its discharge and obtain thereby ample force to propel the coal and deliver it equally over the grate, and this amount of steam is not sufficient to materially affect either the combustion or the draft, for it should be understood that the fuel delivered by my device is designed to be burned in the fire-box by natural draft or at least by draft provided in the same way as if the fire were fed by the shovel and that the steam-jet which I use to thus deliver the coal has no function with respect to the draft.

The efficiency of this device for delivering fragmentary fuel not pulverized is wholly dependent upon the construction by which the steam in a compact jet, with its momentum unimpaired by dispersion, encounters the fragments successively as they drop in its path, each fragment being thus exposed to the full force of the jet and not merely to the force of a small portion of a dispersed or subdivided jet or to the force of an air-blast which might be induced by the jet. The undispersed jet, although acting in a very limited path, is adequate to feed a large quantity of fuel in a given time, because it may receive in its path fragment after fragment in almost unbrokensuccession-that is, with the smallest interval between the fragmentseach of which in turn is moved on from the point at which it receives the impact of the jet at a speed which it could not derive except from the undivided jet, and although each fragment in turn is struck by the jet in the same position, yet the direction which will be given to the difierent fragments will be varied by reason of the variation in the shape of the fragments and the consequently different angles at which they receive the impact of the jet. The result is that the fragmentsare dispersed laterally from the direct line of the jet throughout the width of the chute as they ad- Vance through its length, such dispersion corresponding very closely to the normal dispersion of the jet, due to the resistance of the air, in addition to such dispersion as is caused by its impact with the fuel fragments, so that .end narrowed nearly to a point at the bottom;

a steam-jet discharging into the remote narrowed end at the narrowed bottom part of said end and directed forward; and means for delivering fragmentary fuel by gravity in the bottom of said narrowed rear portion of the chute in front of the jet.

2. A fuel-feeder comprising a fuel-chute discharging in the furnace tire-box above the grate, such chute being tapered, narrowing back from its discharge-mouth toward the rear, or receiving end, and having its said receiving end narrowed transversely nearly to a point; a steam-jet discharging into the narrowed receiving end at the transversely-narrowed part of said end, and directed forward in line with the longitudinal extent of the chute, and means for delivering fragmentary fuel into the narrow receiving-end portion of the chute transversely with respect thereto and toward the narrowed side of said narrowed end of the chute in front of the jet.

3. A fuel-feeder comprising a fuel-chute discharging in the furnace fire-box above the grate, such chute being tapered narrowing back from its discharge toward its receiving end and having the bottom of its receivingend portion substantially V-shaped in crosssection; a steam-jet discharging into the receiving end at the narrowed bottom part thereof, and directed forward, and means for delivering fragmentary fuel by gravity in said narrowed bottom part of the receiving end of the chute in front of the jet.

4. A fuel-feeder comprising a fuel-chute discharging in the furnace fire-box above the grate, having at its discharge a widely-extended mouth, and its rear or remote end narrowed nearly to a point; asteam-jet discharging-into the remote narrowed end, directed forward; and means for delivering fragmentary fuel in the narrowed rear portion of the chute,in front of the jet.

5. A fuel-feeder, comprising a fuel-chute discharging into the furnace fire-box above the grate, having at its discharge a widely-extended shallow mouth and extending thence 7 back narrowing and having a V-shaped receiving end; a steam-jet discharging into the receiving end near the bottom angle thereof; and means for delivering fragmentary fuel into the V-shaped portion of the chute in front of the jet.

6. A fuel-feeder comprising a fuel-chute discharginginto the furnace or fire-box above the grate having at its discharge end a widelyextended mouth and extending thence back narrowingand having a V-shaped receiving end; a steam-jet discharging into the receiving end near the bottom angle thereof; and means for delivering fragmentary fuel continuously-into the V-shaped portion of the chute in front of the jet.

7. A fuel-feeder comprising a fuel-chute discharging in the furnace fire-box above the grate, having at its discharge a widely-extended mouth, and at its rear or remote end narrowed and tapered in cross-section toward the bottom; a steam-jet discharging into the rear narrowed end at the lower narrowed part, directed forward; means for delivering the fuel in the narrowed portion of the chute in 5 front of the jet; and a deflector overhanging the discharge-mouth of the chute, adjustable to varying the inclination with respect to the direction of discharge, to deflect the laterallyspread sheet of fueldischarged from the chute I00 more or less abruptly toward the grate.

8. A fuel-feeder comprising a fuel-chute discharging into the furnace fire-box above the grate; a steam-jet discharging into ,the rear or remote end of the chute, directed for- I05 ward; a roller vjournaled transversely of the direction of the jet, above the same; means for delivering fuel on the roller back of the vertical plane of its axis; and means for revolving the roller forward at its upper side; the forward side of the roller overhanging the chute in front of the discharge of the jet, whereby the fuel is dropped into the chute by the roller in the path of the steam-jet.

9. A fuel-feeder comprising a fuel-chute I15 discharging in the fire-box above the grate; a I steam-jet discharging into the rear or remote end of the chute, directed forward; a corrugated wheel or roller, and a chamber inwhich it is revolved; a feed hopper from which the fuel is delivered onto the roller back of the vertical plane of its axis; and a passage leading from the forward or downwardlymoving side of the roller into the chute in front of the jet; whereby the roller-drops the fuel into the chute in the path of the steam.

10. A fuel-feeder comprising a fuel-chute discharging in the furnace fire-box above the grate; a steam-jet discharging into the rear or remote end of the chute, directed forward; a wheel or roller journaled above the jet, transversely thereof; means for revolving the roller forward at its upper side, the forward side of the roller overhanging the chute at the forward side of the jet; and means for delivering fuel on the roller back of the vertical plane of its axis.

11. A fuel-feeder comprising a fuel-chute discharging in the furnace above the fire-box, having at its discharge a widely-extended mouth, and thence narrowed toward its rear or remote end and V-shaped in vertical cross-.

12. A fuel-feeder comprising a fuel-chute discharging into the fire-box above the grate, such chute having its fuel-receiving end narrowed nearly to a point; a steam-jet discharging into such fuel-receiving end directed forward; a roller journaled transversely to the direction of the jet; a fuel hopperor conduit for discharging fragmentary fuel on the roller hack of the vertical plane of its axis; means for revolving the roller forward at its upper side; and means for regulating the speed of the roller at will.

In testimonywhereof I have hereunto set my hand, at Chicago, Illinois, this 31st day of August, A. D. 1901..

NERI E. SHONTZ.

In presence of- CHAS. S. BURTON, EDWARD T. WRAY. 

